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David Bowie's Low by Hugo Wilcken
Excellent Book
- GenresMusic
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Hugo Wilcken
9 books7 followersHugo Wilcken was born in Australia and is now based in Paris. He has written the novels The Reflection, Colony and The Execution, as well as a book about David Bowie's album Low.
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February 7, 2024
After enduring a blizzard of cocaine, which he battled through for around three long years, Bowie stepped away from those dark seasons of messianic delusions, fascist ramblings and other ghastly excess. He relocated to rural France and then later Berlin, where he began working on “Low”, the first instalment in what would be later known as his “Berlin Trilogy”, even though only one of the tracks on this LP was entirely recorded there.
With its spare, minimal glacial beats and Bowie’s sparse, esoteric lyrics “Low” is clearly well-produced, but like other albums in the triptych it’s kind of all over the place, lacking both coherence and structure. Listening back to the album (for the first time in a long time), what I hear is vaguely pleasant background noises, ambient filler that reeks of leftovers from other sessions, abandoned or otherwise. “Low” has two or three fine moments in the likes of “What In The World” and the instrumental opener, “Speed of Life” but you couldn’t really place this album in Bowie’s Top Ten.
As for the book Wilcken shows a firm grasp of the music and culture which influences the album, his link to Kraftwerk was well put. He really captures the sense of turmoil and dislocation in the artist’s mind as well as the angst and paranoia that came along with Bowie’s addiction and withdrawal. We get a lot of detail with his relationship with Iggy Pop and his ex-wife and others. And unlike too many other authors in this series, he doesn’t fall into the over-intellectualising trap.
With its spare, minimal glacial beats and Bowie’s sparse, esoteric lyrics “Low” is clearly well-produced, but like other albums in the triptych it’s kind of all over the place, lacking both coherence and structure. Listening back to the album (for the first time in a long time), what I hear is vaguely pleasant background noises, ambient filler that reeks of leftovers from other sessions, abandoned or otherwise. “Low” has two or three fine moments in the likes of “What In The World” and the instrumental opener, “Speed of Life” but you couldn’t really place this album in Bowie’s Top Ten.
As for the book Wilcken shows a firm grasp of the music and culture which influences the album, his link to Kraftwerk was well put. He really captures the sense of turmoil and dislocation in the artist’s mind as well as the angst and paranoia that came along with Bowie’s addiction and withdrawal. We get a lot of detail with his relationship with Iggy Pop and his ex-wife and others. And unlike too many other authors in this series, he doesn’t fall into the over-intellectualising trap.
Displaying 1 of 1 review